


those kids were fast as lightning

by sibley (ferns)



Category: DCU (Comics), The Flash (Comics)
Genre: Earth-11, Gen, Nonbinary Character
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-31
Updated: 2020-12-31
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:42:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28440039
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ferns/pseuds/sibley
Summary: Sure, the whole “let’s race for charity” thing had been done before by therealJesse Quick and Superwoman, but supervillain threats didn’t stop just so the big leagues could help raise money for cancer research. And Kid Quick and Supergirl are just as fast.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	those kids were fast as lightning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MrDinocorn](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrDinocorn/gifts).



> The second of my two lgbtincomics gift exchange gifts for Randomdinomaiz on tumblr. I hope you like it!
> 
> Tagging on this is a little clumsy considering these are all such new characters on top of being ones from another Earth, sorry.

Jess pulls their new goggles down over their eyes as they brace their hands against the ground. They crane their neck so they can grin at Supergirl. “You ready to eat dust?”

Laurel sticks her tongue out at them. “You wish.”

Sure, the whole “let’s race for charity” thing had been done before by the  _ real  _ Jesse Quick and Superwoman, but supervillain threats didn’t stop just so the big leagues could help raise money for cancer research, and the charity in question this time around had been happy to settle for the sidekicks.

(“I’m not a sidekick,” Laurel insists at every opportunity. “Do you see me running around after Mom like Robin runs around after Batwoman? No! You don’t! I’m my own hero!”

“Sure, shortstack.” Jess pats her on the head. “You’re a—ow, hey! Who taught you that? No biting!”)

“Two supers! One race around the world to see who’s the fastest! All for a good cause!” The announcer shouts. Jess didn’t catch his name, but he’s got one hell of a voice. “Kid Quick and Supergirl! Hero versus hero! Sidekick versus sidekick! Don’t blink, or you might miss it! Is everybody ready?”

Jess takes a deep breath in through their nose and out through their mouth, the speed equation resting heavy on their tongue. Laurel tries whispering something to them, but it all just sounds like noise as the wind brushes the hair off of their forehead. They clench their fingers and take another deep breath, and the equation comes easily.

They’re gone from the starting line by the time the announcer’s whistle finishes ringing out.

Nobody else gets it. How Jess and their aunt feel when they run. Sure, heroes like Superwoman and Supergirl are fast, Laurel wouldn’t be nipping at Jess’ heels if they weren’t, but it’s not the same. They don’t have a connection to the speedforce like the Quicks do. They don’t know what it’s like to  _ breathe  _ the lightning. To reach out while running and feel the air’s resistance to movement. To see the world in slow motion. Hanging like a faulty snowglobe. The whole world a butterfly preserved in amber. It’s beautiful.

When their feet hit the Coos Bay, they allow themself a breath of time to look over their shoulder to see how far Laurel is.

She’s zipping along right behind them in true Superwoman form, jaw set with a little pout on her face. The gap really isn’t substantial, which is a little surprising. The races between Jesse Quick and Superwoman are always pretty close, but Jess had figured that with Laurel’s little noodle arms and legs she’d be long gone behind them. 

Instead, Supergirl’s going so fast that her pseudo-cape barely even has time to flap in the wind, streaming behind her like shreds of a tattered banner. Jess risks briefly running backwards across the Pacific Ocean to finally stick their tongue back out at her. Hey, the gap is  _ small,  _ and small means there’s still enough space to taunt her. Just a little bit.

Supergirl’s eyes suddenly go wide and she twists her body to brake like she’s skidding to a halt in midair, cape swirling around her. Any exclamation of surprise is torn away on the wind.

Jess turns around in time to change gears and not run directly intto the giant octopus suddenly in their path.

Their “whoa!” vanishes into the waves as Jess goes to swerve around it, avoiding more and more tentacles lifting from the pitching sea. The thing’s got to be at least three stories tall, and Jess does a few laps around it once they’ve gotten past it, race mostly forgotten.

Ideally, they’d poke around and figure out what the deal is. But the thing about running on water is that if you slow down, you’ll immediately sink, and unless there’s an ice floe or something nearby there’s not a lot of opportunity to build all that momentum back up to keep going.

“Hey, Jess!” A voice shouts, and Jess does what they hadn’t done before and looks up at the octopus’ head, with its massive siphon and huge rectangular-pupiled eyes. Aquagirl waves from the very top of it, white hair whipping in the wind. “Good luck! I think Supergirl’s gaining on you!”

Luckily, Jess’ brain moves fast enough that they figure out that the giant sea monster was meant to be a sign of  _ encouragement,  _ not an obstacle to avoid. And to think, they wasted a valuable thirty-five seconds dodging and investigating it. That was long enough for Laurel to gain the upper hand (foot? It  _ is  _ a race, after all, but Laurel’s flying, not running), though not by long enough that Jess thinks her and Jacqui planned this together.

They only make the effort to overtake Laurel just as they hit the Japanese coast. Why not let her think she stands a chance of winning this thing? Besides, this way they can save energy until they get closer to the finish line. It’s all the way back in the States—that big checkered stripe is smack-dab in the middle of Salt Lake City.

Then, when they’re both barely past Yamagata, it happens again. This time Jess spots it before Laurel, though, and it isn’t directly in the path they’re both taking, just a cloth sign hanging off of one of the taller and wider buildings in the city.

It clearly originally read  _ “GO KID QUICK!!!”  _ with three exclamation points, but it was slashed out with black spray-paint and now had _ “SUPERGIRL”  _ scrawled below it. Talia’s doing, Jess is sure. She might’ve tolerated the rest of their blossoming little superhero team, but her loyalty always seemed to be to Laurel first. A holdover from when Supergirl was the only friend Robin had ever had.

Jess can’t help but wheeze a little laugh as they go by it, and they’d bet anything that Laurel’s pulled her phone out of the little pockets she had her dad stitch into her suit so she could take a picture at super-speed. Jokes on her. Jess already knows they’ll be coming back for it later, since phone cameras don’t register nearly as fast as they’re going, meaning Laurel’s wasting precious seconds.

It’s cute, that Robin and Aquagirl and at least one other person (Jess will have to figure out who. It seems like Klarienne’s gotten over her first little crush, and they don’t think she’d even be interested enough in the race to know it was happening, much less to make a banner rooting for them before Talia vandalized it. But who else could it have been?) went out of their way to cheer them on. Especially since their team is still pretty newly minted.

Jess lets Laurel overtake them again the closer they get back to Utah, conserving their energy and admiring the sparks that fly up from their boots. Non-speedsters really  _ don’t  _ get what it’s like to have a little home pyrotechnics kit that follows you wherever—or whenever, considering some of the time-travel adventures Jess has heard about from their aunt—you go. Even the dramatic flair that follows wherever Talia swings doesn’t stand up to the feeling of literally having lightning at one’s heels. 

It’s in Russia when they run into the last one. It’s impossible to miss, even more-so than the giant, suddenly appearing octopus had been. A huge blue and red neon sign sitting at a town square in Kazan. Donald stands on top of it, obviously too cool to wave or do anything more than shoot the two of them with a pair of finger guns as the symbols of Jesse Quick and Superwoman flicker down at them from at least six feet up.

Jess’ embarrassing tears have long since been blinked away by the time they cross the border between Poland and Lithuania. It’s silly. It’s just that it’s… meaningful, that their friends already like them enough to cheer them on. They could’ve just decided to all root for Laurel, considering they’ve known her longer. And, well, Talia  _ did  _ do that, but Jess can sympathize. Making friends is hard, so you have to cherish the ones you know you have. Jess isn’t exactly  _ unpopular  _ in their civvies, they’ve got some friends, good ones even, but it’s just different. They can’t fully be themselves around those people. They only know Jess.

Around their superhero team—name pending, though Jess likes the sound of “the Titans” a lot better than they like “Teen Justice,” which seems to be what the rest of the group is leaning toward—though?

Then they can be Jess Chambers  _ and  _ Kid Quick. And that’s pretty special, isn’t it?

When they get to the Atlantic Ocean, they hold their hand out and brush it through the trailing threads of the speed force. The wind tastes like ozone and salt, and Jess realizes that’s probably why they saw Laurel wrinkling her nose after that thing with the giant cephalopod. It’s not the best smell in the world, but to them, it just feels like freedom.

They take a quick detour once they reach the eastern coast of the United States, veering off from Laurel to quickly snag some saltwater taffy in New Jersey from the shop their aunt swears by, dropping the money onto the counter and being gone again before the door even has time to close. It tastes like the ocean they just ran across, and they stuff the rest in the bag as they easily catch back up with Supergirl.

They have an advantage of at least ten feet by the time they skid to a stop across the finish line, paper bag of taffy in hand. It takes a moment for the announcer to register what happened, but they figure it out by the time Laurel rockets across the finish line six seconds later.

“You cheated!” She accuses over the sound of clapping and the announcer saying that Kid Quick was the winner.

Jess shakes their head and holds out one of the pieces of candy. “Nah. I’m just faster. You have two hundred superpowers, I’m sure you’ll manage.”

Laurel eyes them for a second before snatching the candy and shoving it into her mouth. She spits it out to unwrap it before eating it for real. “Whatever,” she says around the chocolate-flavored taffy. “You’re lucky we’re friends.”

Jess can’t help but laugh.

Yeah. They really are. 

**Author's Note:**

> I'm @augustheart on tumblr.


End file.
